Today is Palm Sunday and that means next Sunday is EASTER, Sunday, April 16Some facts about Easter:

Easter or Pascha is the oldest and most important Christian feast, celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion, as described in the New Testament. Easter is preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting and penance.How is the date of Easter determined?

Easter is a moveable feast meaning that its date varies from year to year. In Western churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, which use the Gregorian calendar, the earliest possible date of Easter is March 22, while the latest is April 25. However, these are very rare — the next time Easter falls on April 25 is in the year 2038, and the next time the date is March 22 will be in the year 2285. The most common date between the year 1900 and 2100 is April 19. Eastern churches, including the Eastern Orthodox Church, use the Julian calendar, therefore the date of Easter usually differs from the Gregorian calendar, even though the dates are computed in a similar way.

The date of Easter is determined as the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon falling on or next after the spring equinox (March 21 — a fixed date not the real, astronomical equinox). The Paschal full moon refers to the 14th day of the ecclesiastical lunar month and not the real, astronomical Full Moon, and its date is determined from tables. However, most often the two dates coincide, and between the year 1900 and 2100 there are only 18 differences between the dates calculated using the two methods. A well-known method of calculating the date of Easter was given by Carl Friedrich Gauss, however a simpler method was described by Jean Meeus in [1].Early Easter Date Calculations

The first Christians followed the biblical Hebrew calendar and timed the observance of Easter in relation to the date of the Jewish Passover. Passover was celebrated by the Israelites to commemorate their deliverance from the slavery in Egypt. The Passover meal was eaten at sunset on the 14th day of Nisan (Aviv). Jesus was crucified on the 14th and rose from the dead some time before sunrise on the 16th day of Nisan. Because the Jews got away from the biblical Hebrew calendar (in 221 AD and further in 400 AD), and because the Christians wanted the date of Easter to be independent of the Jewish calendar, the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) established the independent and uniform calculation of the Easter date.Easter Celebrations

In many countries, Easter is a public holiday, and as Easter always falls on Sunday, some countries also have Easter Monday as a public holiday. Although, Easter is the most important Christian holiday it is not as popular as Christmas. Easter joins two important events of which the first is profoundly sad and dramatic while the other is just the opposite. The first one is, of course, the Crucifixion and Death of Christ after which his body was placed in the tomb. Three days later he Resurrected beating death. Resurrection is a triumph of life and even more astonishing than the miracle of Christ birth.

In addition to religious celebrations involving Church services, Easter is celebrated in several ways in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these celebrations have little to do with the Christian meaning of the holiday. The most popular include festive family meals, Easter eggs decoration, hiding the decorated eggs for children to find and giving children baskets with candy.

In the USA, the Spring break for high school and college students usually occurs about Easter time, hence many families leave the cold of northern states to visit amusement parks or sunny beaches in the south. http://www.calendar-12.com/holidays/easter/2017

So whatever your feelings about Easter - now you have some more info !!

The facts expressed here belong to everybody. The opinions are mine.I don’t post political comments or articles to convince those who disagree with me,I post them so that those who might agree with such positions will know they are not alone.Some things are opinions and can be argued - some things are facts and cannot.Proverbs, Chapter 16 verse 9 <--- When in doubt, remember this.

"Christians worldwide celebrate Palm Sunday, commemorating the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week, a week that would end with his death on Good Friday, then followed by Easter Sunday.

For followers of Jesus, this week marks the culmination of a lifetime of sinless obedience to God, and the final five days of a teaching ministry that even the billions who do not claim the name of Christ must readily acknowledge changed the world forever.

But what does the Bible say happened as these final events of Jesus’ life began to unfold? The Old Testament Zechariah had prophesied that Israel’s great king, the messiah, would come mounted “on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

From the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament:

And when he [Jesus] had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

The facts expressed here belong to everybody. The opinions are mine.I don’t post political comments or articles to convince those who disagree with me,I post them so that those who might agree with such positions will know they are not alone.Some things are opinions and can be argued - some things are facts and cannot.Proverbs, Chapter 16 verse 9 <--- When in doubt, remember this.

The facts expressed here belong to everybody. The opinions are mine.I don’t post political comments or articles to convince those who disagree with me,I post them so that those who might agree with such positions will know they are not alone.Some things are opinions and can be argued - some things are facts and cannot.Proverbs, Chapter 16 verse 9 <--- When in doubt, remember this.

You mean "forty days without ... a man"? Or "men"?Careful with your plurals and singulars, Mr Cowboy.

The facts expressed here belong to everybody. The opinions are mine.I don’t post political comments or articles to convince those who disagree with me,I post them so that those who might agree with such positions will know they are not alone.Some things are opinions and can be argued - some things are facts and cannot.Proverbs, Chapter 16 verse 9 <--- When in doubt, remember this.

from Steven Baldwin:Heaven How I Got Here, A Night with the Thief on the Cross

The facts expressed here belong to everybody. The opinions are mine.I don’t post political comments or articles to convince those who disagree with me,I post them so that those who might agree with such positions will know they are not alone.Some things are opinions and can be argued - some things are facts and cannot.Proverbs, Chapter 16 verse 9 <--- When in doubt, remember this.